HR helps Bells win WCAL playoff game
Bellarmine baseball coach Mike Rodriguez doesn’t bother stressing anymore.
He knows any West Catholic Athletic League playoff game is going to be a scratchand-claw special.
“Certainly among the top five teams, every game is going to be a crapshoot,” he said. “It’s always going to come down to one key play.”
In the case of Bellarmine’s 3-1 first-round playoff win at Mitty on Tuesday, it was really one big swing of the bat.
Wes Harper’s leadoff homer in the second started a tworun rally and Michael Mitchell and Lucas Ragen made it stand up, combining on a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts.
Mitchell improved to 5-0 by throwing six innings and striking out eight before Ragen worked a 1-2-3 seventh as the Bells (22-6) moved into Wednesday’s semifinal game against regular-season champion Serra, an 11-5 winner over St. Ignatius.
In other first-round games, second-seeded Valley Christian defeated seventh-seeded Riordan 10-3, and third-seeded St. Francis beat sixth-seeded
Sacred Heart Cathedral 10-0.
Both semifinal games are Wednesday at Santa Clara University. Valley Christian (24-3-1) and St. Francis (20-7) play at 4 p.m. followed by Serra (21-7) versus Bellarmine at 7.
“It’s anyone’s championship,” Rodriguez said.
Tuesday marked the 10th straight time that Rodriguez and the Bells have been involved in a game decided by three runs or fewer. They lost two regular-season games to Mitty, both by 4-3 scores, but on Saturday, they won the Boras Classic, which boasts itself as a mini-state tournament.
The Boras games were spread out over more than a month, and the Bells finished it off with a 5-4 win over Serra-San Juan Capistrano at Santa Clara University.
It was Rodriguez’s 200th
win.
“We’re definitely battletested,” Rodriguez said. “There’s not many situations we haven’t faced.”
Following Harper’s home run Tuesday, Josh Mollerus scored Gio Saso with a groundout, making it 2-0.
Mitty (20-7) closed the gap to 2-1 on an RBI single from Connor Leaverton before a two-out drag bunt RBI single by Matt Kao in the sixth returned a two-run cushion to the Bells.
Josh Seward, a senior righthander who entered the game with a 9-0 record and 0.78 ERA, went the distance for Mitty. He gave up seven hits and struck out eight.
“All three pitchers threw very well,” Rodriguez said. “It was another great WCAL game.”
Other games: St. Francis piled up 15 hits, including three by Ricky Martinez, in its 10-0 win over visiting Sacred Heart Cathedral (14-14). … Ryan Belluomini, Jonathan Cymrot and Coleman Brigman all hit home runs in the third inning as host Valley Christian won 10-3 over Riordan (9-18). … In Bay Valley Athletic League play, Christian Blevins fired a three-hitter to lead host Pittsburg (14-7, 3-4) to a 5-0 win over Heritage-Brentwood (15-6, 5-2). Tyler Orr and Jack Lacy had two RBIs apiece for Pittsburg, which lost to Heritage 19-1 on April 19.
SOFTBALL
WCAL: St. Ignatius (17-4), ranked sixth by The Chronicle, won 12-3 over Sacred Heart Cathedral (5-13) in a WCAL first-round playoff game while ninth-ranked Mitty (17-6) won 3-0 over Presentation (10-9). Semifinal play continues Wednesday when Mitty plays eighth-ranked Valley Christian (17-6) and seventh-ranked St. Francis (20-5) meets St. Ignatius.